Richard Hays’s 1996 work The Moral Vision of the New Testament is a landmark book in biblical ethics. Hays produced a rare text that appealed to both mainline protestant readers and evangelicals alike. One of the primary reasons evangelicals have cited and lauded Hays’s work is that he takes a decidedly non-affirming position in his chapter on homosexuality. Before he died in 2024, Hays co-authored The Widening of God’s Mercy with his son Christopher. In this book, Hays and Hays not only change the position expressed in The Moral Vision of the New Testament but express remorse and regret over the pain caused by R. Hays’s 1996 work.
Evangelicals are likely to lament Richard Hays’s late-in-life change of position on how the Bible informs Christian practice regarding homosexuality and are unlikely to be swayed by the argument provided in The Widening of God’s Mercy. However, excoriating The Widening of God’s Mercy is of little value. What is valuable is for Evangelicals to consider whether the argument Hays and Hays make in The Widening of God’s Mercy is consistent with the overall ethical vision of the NT according to R. Hays’s 1996 book. R. Hays recanted his position on homosexuality, but did he do so in a way that holds up to the broader methodology he proposed in 1996?
This paper critiques the argument of The Widening of God’s Mercy by considering the book in light of R. Hays’s three “focal images” of the NT Canon–Community, Cross, and New Creation (Moral Vision, 195–205). By comparing Hays’s revised position to his previous vision of the New Testament, we gain deeper insight into what motivated his changing view of homosexuality and can consider what role his work still plays in doing biblical ethics.